(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Look at verse number eight where the Bible read, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds. But the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And the phrase I wanted to pick out here was this phrase that the Apostle Paul uses. He says, even unto bonds, even unto bonds. And that's the title of the sermon, even unto bonds. You say, what is he saying here? The Apostle Paul is trying to say that he's going at great lengths to get people saved. He's willing to do anything and everything. And whenever he goes out and preaches the gospel, whenever he's going into these areas, he's suffering a lot of trouble. People are saying he's a bad person. People are labeling him with all kinds of false accusations. And he's saying, look, I'm suffering trouble as an evildoer. As someone that's like a murderer, or an adulterer, or a rape, someone that's like really bad. He's suffering trouble like those people would suffer trouble, suffering persecution like them. And he's saying, at the extreme, even unto bonds. He's kind of taking it to an extreme and saying, hey, I'm actually suffering so much persecution, I'm being thrown in prison. I'm being constantly bound because of me preaching the gospel, because of me standing firm on the Word of God, for me teaching the doctrines of the Bible. Go up a little bit to chapter 1 and look at verse number 16. This is what the Bible says. The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onosiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and notice this, and was not ashamed of my chain. You know, when you read the New Testament, there's something that's kind of interesting. The Apostle Paul is constantly writing to us in prison. You know, a lot of the epistles that we get, it's him in jail writing an epistle to other people. So it's actually beneficial for us that he was locked up for a while so he could write us some of the Bible, so he could actually give us the Word of God. But we must take note of the fact that the Apostle Paul was in bonds. And we notice that he's making this statement here in chapter 1 because a lot of people, they're kind of excited about the preaching, they kind of get on board, but then when persecution starts to hit, people fall away. And then when it gets real extreme, when the Apostle Paul is thrown in jail, people are just leaving by the droves. And he says, you know what, I really like this guy Onosiphorus because he was not ashamed of my chain. He was not ashamed of me when I was thrown in prison. And let me make it clear to you, the day is coming when Baptist preachers will be thrown in prison for what they preach in America. And you know what, there's going to be a lot of people that are ashamed of what they taught. They're going to be ashamed of what they stood for. They're going to say, well this guy's an evil doer. And you know what, when you read your Bible, it kind of just, I was thinking about this thought and it really blew my mind because virtually everybody is thrown in prison in this book. Every godly person is constantly thrown in prison. And if we go to chapter number four, it's kind of sad, but the Apostle Paul, he's reflecting in chapter number four about his experiences, how the fact that most people, even godly Christians, people that were faithful with him, doing the work of the Lord, they end up turning on him. Look at chapter number four, look at what he says in verse number 10. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Cretans to Galatia, Titus unto Dematia, only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me, for the ministry and Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. So he's saying, some of these guys that you would think were really faithful, that were good servants of the Lord, they've forsaken me. They're gone. They're not serving the Lord. Look at what he says here in verse number 16. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Now this really happened. The Apostle Paul truly had all of his disciples, all of the first Christians, they could not stand with the Apostle Paul at his darkest hour, at the time of great persecution, they all forsook him. They all said, oh this guy's beside himself, I don't like what he's preaching, I can't be there. It's not much different than Jesus. What happens at Jesus' darkest hour? What happens when they come to arrest him? The guy that says he'll lay down his life, where's he at? Oh yeah, a damsel scares him. A damsel terrifies him, he can't even say. And so we ought not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We ought not think, you know what, I'm ready to go, I'm gonna be there. Now we ought to prepare ourselves. Now we ought to realize, you know what, I want to start preparing myself to accept the reality that those that serve the Lord, those that really turn the world upside down with the gospel, they're gonna suffer as evildoers, even unto bonds. There's gonna be godly Christians that we know of, that we like and support, thrown in prison, I believe, for the Word of God. You say, why? Well, we're gonna go through and look at some reasons why people are thrown into prison based on biblical example, but you know what, we're already starting to rock the boat. I mean, what in the world? Why does Fox News care what Sarah Silverman tweets? But literally, in 48 hours, our church name is just blasted everywhere as this hate group, and we're hate mongers, and we're extremists, and everybody's just kinda eating up this dialogue. You don't think it's gonna get worse? You don't think it's just gonna be more and more and more? They're testing the waters today, they're trying to figure out where people are at, and there's gonna be a point in time where you have to make a decision, am I gonna stand with the Apostle Paul, or am I gonna forsake him? And you know what the Apostle Paul, he said, I don't care what you guys do, I'm still gonna serve the God. Look what he says. He says, my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Paul wasn't even mad about it. Paul's like, I get it. I'm gonna pray for you guys. I'm gonna pray that the Lord strengthens you. He says in verse 17, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. You know what this tells me? Whenever you have to take a stand, and it's the whole world against you, but you got the Bible on your side, you stick with the Bible. You stand on the promises of God's Word. You stand on that rock. The Lord will strengthen you. The Lord can get you through it. We see David, he's constantly going through struggle and difficulty. He gets to some of the darkest hours of his life. When you get into 1 Samuel chapter number 30, I mean, he just keeps going down and down, men forsaking him. His life gets worse and worse and worse. He gets to the point where he loses everything. His wife and all his goods are taken. All his other men's goods are taken, and they basically say, let's stone David. You know what David does? He strengthens himself in the Lord, is what the Bible says. He strengthened himself in the Word of God. You know where we should get our strength? God's Word. Because you know what? Man will fail you. Man will disappoint you. Man will forsake you. But you know what? God will not forsake us. God can strengthen us, even unto bonds. And if you have to face prison, you might as well stand on the Word of God. You might as well go to the prison for the Word of God and not for your own faults. Now, I have four reasons why people were thrown in prison, but the Apostle Paul, probably the primary reason why he was thrown in prison was for preaching the Gospel. Let's look at a few places quickly. Go to Ephesians. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. It's kind of the middle of your New Testament. Look at Ephesians chapter number 3, and let's look at verse number 1. The Bible says, So where is he writing this epistle? Prison. Now look at chapter 4 verse 1. I think he's trying to drive in a point. Hey, did you know I wasn't a prisoner? I'm a prisoner. We already read in 2 Timothy where there's a prison. Go to Philemon. Flip forward just a little bit. 1 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, right before the book of Hebrews. Philemon chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved and fellow laborer. We see the Apostle Paul. He's constantly making mention of the fact that he's in jail, that he's been in prison. Why? For preaching the Word of God. Now go to Acts chapter number 5. Go back to Acts. Acts chapter number 5. Let's see another group of people that are thrown in prison for preaching the gospel. Acts chapter number 5, because it wasn't just the Apostle Paul. It's not just a one-man show. Now obviously the Apostle Paul is highlighted in the New Testament, but look at Acts chapter number 5 verse 12, insomuch that they brought forth the sick under the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about on Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one. Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with them, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the Apostles, and put them in the common prison. So notice what happens. The Apostles, they're going out, they're preaching the Word of God, they're healing people, they're doing wonderful miracles, and it's gaining a lot of attention. The chief priests don't like that. So what do they end up doing? Throwing them in prison. And notice who's thrown in prison, verse 18, and they lay their hands on the Apostles. Every single one of the Apostles is thrown in jail in this section. The Apostles that we know of, the early first 12 Apostles, they're all thrown in prison for what? Preaching the Gospel, for going out and doing good, for healing people. We have the Apostle Paul thrown into prison for what? Preaching the Gospel. We have the Apostles thrown into prison for what? Preaching the Gospel. And let me tell you what the common denominator is. A multitude of people are hearing the Gospel. Why is it that they're throwing Apostle Paul? Not because he's some small, you know, faction that nobody cares about. No, because he's coming into a city and turning the whole city upside down with the Gospel. Everybody's hearing the Gospel. Why are they wanting to throw the Apostles in? Not because they're this small sect. No, everybody is hearing about them. Look what it said in verse 16. There came also a multitude out of the city's roundabout in Jerusalem. Look, everybody's coming to hear the Apostles preach. Everybody wants to hear their message. There are great multitudes coming out and because of envy, because they don't like them hearing their message, that's why they want to throw them into prison. So as they grow, as they get to a point where there's great multitudes, when there's more and more people listening, now all of a sudden they gotta stop that message, don't they? Just like the Apostle Paul. Look what it says in verse 26. So what does the Bible say here? What's making it clear that the reason why they're thrown in prison is because they're going out and preaching Jesus Christ. Does it say here, hey, you guys are thrown in prison because you stole a bunch of money? Because you committed all these crimes. Why? Because they preached Jesus Christ. Because of their doctrine. And notice, because their doctrine had filled all of Jerusalem. Now go to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. You say, hey, Pastor Shelley, what are you kinda getting at? Well, I'm getting at this theme that we're gonna constantly see, but whenever a multitude, whenever a large group of people are being affected by the Gospel, the enemies now want to stop that message. And what's one of their modus operandi? Throw them in prison. Throw them in jail. It happened to the Apostle Paul. It happened to all the Apostles. How about your Lord and Savior? Mark chapter 14. Look at verse 55. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, answer'st thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace and answered nothing. And again the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am! And ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes and saith, What need we any further witness? Ye have heard the blasphemy. What think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy! And the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands. And as Peter was beneath the palace, there came one of the maids of the high priest. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, And thou also was with Jesus of Nazareth? But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand what thou sayest. And he went out on the porch in the cot crew. So what's happening here? Well, we have the Lord Jesus Christ being brought unto this great multitude, unto the Pharisees, unto the chief priests, and why is it that they're attacking him? What was the false witness accusation? That he would destroy the temple and three days raise it up. But he was talking about the spirit of his body, which is what? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is that? The gospel. Why is it that they hated Jesus Christ? The gospel. Jesus Christ went out preaching the gospel, told them to believe on him, told them that he was the Christ, and because he said he was the Christ, the coming Messiah, and the death, burial, and resurrection, they crucified him. They crucified him because he said he was the Christ, because he said that he was the Son of God. Some people, like the Muslims, they'll be like, Jesus never said that he was the Son of God. Well, my Bible, he was asked, Hey art thou the Son of the Blessed? And he said, I am. How is that not clear enough for you Muslim? Jesus Christ didn't go around denying who he was. He embraced who he was. Now obviously at the beginning of his ministry, he tried to keep it a little bit more quiet because he knew as soon as he goes around saying, I'm the Son of God, people are going to try and crucify him. People are going to try and kill him because of his word. So obviously it's coming to a climax here with the high priest, asking him if he's the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, and Jesus did not deny it. He said, I am. I am. So why is it that they're arresting Jesus? Why is it that they're wanting to put Jesus into bonds? Look at verse 1 of chapter 15. And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away and delivered him to Pilate. So notice Jesus Christ is brought even unto bonds. Why would Jesus Christ get to the point of even to bonds? Because he was preaching the gospel. And you know what? We're not supposed to be better than Jesus Christ. We're supposed to be like Jesus Christ. So you know what we're supposed to do? Preach the gospel even unto bonds. The Apostle Paul preached the gospel even unto bonds. The Apostles preached the gospel even unto bonds. Jesus Christ preached the gospel even unto bonds. Now look at verse 10. This is why they did it. For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. So even Pilate, when he looked at the chief priests, he realized that the reason why they are persecuting Jesus is because of envy. You know why? Because the truth is desirable. I like hearing the truth. You know what? Other people like hearing the truth. So evil people have to censor truth. They have to turn it off. They have to shut it down. Why? They can't resist it. You know whenever Stephen preaches great sermon they couldn't resist the words that were coming out of his mouth. So they had to just kill him. They had to just destroy him. They had to get rid of it. And why is it they have to destroy Jesus? Well they don't want all men to believe on him. Why did they have to kill Lazarus? They didn't want all men to believe on him. Why did they have to kill the Apostle Paul? They didn't want everybody to believe in Jesus. Why do they want to kill the Apostles? Because they don't want everyone to believe in Jesus. Why today would they throw a Bible believing Baptist into prison today? Because they don't want them to believe in Jesus. You say, whose agenda is that? The devil. The God of this world that blinds the minds of them which believe not. Go to John chapter 11. John chapter number 11. Look at verse number 48. John chapter 11 verse number 48. This is why they were so afraid. Verse 48. This is the attitude of our government today. This is the attitude of the wicked leaders today. They're afraid that if you go out and you preach the gospel with free course, all men will believe in Jesus Christ. So they say, you know what? We ought to kill these people. And this will be the guys that they will use to kill Christians. They will say, well, you know what? It's better for us to just really react harshly to these extremists so that they don't go and corrupt the world. It'll be preventative crime. They'll be saying, well, I know they didn't do anything wrong, but what they're saying could cause problems. You know, some of the things they said could incite violence. So we might as well just shut them down now. And they're going to throw people in prison. They're going to do all manner of evil against them. Now if you go to Revelation chapter 1, Revelation chapter number 1, you're going to have a hard time picking a character that you like in the New Testament that was not thrown in prison. So you say, hey, I want to be like this guy in the New Testament. Well, if you're going to be like him, you might be thrown in prison because pretty much all the people I like, they're either killed or they're thrown in prison. That's your options, all right? Stephen, killed. James, killed. Jesus, thrown in prison. All the apostles, thrown in prison. The Apostle Paul, thrown in prison. John the Revelator, when he was an apostle, he was thrown in prison. He gets exiled, too. Look at Revelation chapter 1 verse 9. So notice this guy, he's been exiled, and then we get this great book, the book of Revelation. So we ought not look at being in bonds as something that's necessarily negative. It's just reality. We ought to accept the reality. Now go through to Genesis chapter 39. Genesis chapter number 39. So we've looked at some very clear examples. Why would someone be thrown in prison today that's a Bible-believing Christian? It's for preaching the gospel. But take note that it wasn't because they just preached the gospel, it's because they were making a big difference by preaching the gospel. Let me make it clear, all these weak, lame Baptists that believe the gospel and don't preach it, they're not going to be thrown in prison. You know, the world doesn't care about them, they're not making a difference. Why do they care about the apostles? They're turning the whole world upside down. They're turning Jerusalem upside down. Why do they care about Jesus? They're afraid everybody's going to believe in him. Why did they do that to the apostle Paul? Because he'd come into an area that's all given to idolatry and then the majority of the people start believing in Jesus Christ now. And it gets them like, they're freaking out. They're like, what in the world are we going to do with this guy? They're actually believing the truth. What's another reason somebody could be thrown in prison, according to the Bible? Well, here's another example. The fact that you're just being tempted. They're being tried. You know, some people will just be tempted and tried with being thrown in prison. Genesis chapter 39, look at verse 17. So notice that Joseph ends up being thrown in prison. Was it because he did anything wrong? Actually, he was righteous. Because he did that which is right, he was thrown in prison. And notice what this woman does. She rails on him with false accusations, just like they did to Jesus Christ, just like they did to the apostles, just like they did to the apostle Paul. What are they doing? They're saying false accusations against him and then they throw him into prison. You know, they have all these signs out here. Oh, your pastor advocates child abuse. When am I advocating child abuse? This pastor lies a lot. You know, what are those lies? This pastor thinks that he's God. You know, just railing accusation. We never say that I was God. Whenever I say, I'm trying to get the pedophiles out of the building and I'm the one that's advocating child abuse. But the other Baptist, they literally have the pedophile as the youth leader and somehow they're the loving one. It's calling evil good and good evil today. It's ridiculous. But you know what? It's going to happen. And you know what? Your family is going to be like, oh, your pastor, you know, he thinks he's God. Where did you get that? From some atheist troll? When did he say that? You know, your pastor thinks that, you know, he can fly on a spaceship. I mean, they just make stuff up. Just all kinds of railing, false accusation. Oh, Joseph. Yeah, he was trying to lie with your wife. Was he really trying to do that? No. And you got to be careful just believing railing accusations. You got to be careful believing information from one source. Where's the two or three witnesses that condemned Joseph? There was not. There was one witness and she was a false witness. Whenever you hear information, you can't just take it as gospel truth. You got to consider the source. You got to consider where the information is coming from. How do you know that that really happened? And obviously, a man's just going to trust his wife, period, right? I mean, Potiphar's kind of stuck in a tough situation. You know, call my wife a liar or throw this guy in prison. You're going to prison, buddy. But we see Joseph, he wasn't bumping it for his faults. He was just thrown right into prison, wasn't he? Why? Because God was testing him. God is trying Joseph and Joseph is going to become one of the most important people on the earth. And God is going to use this experience to test them and to try them and to see, hey, are you still going to be faithful to me when you go through a really hard time? You know, I don't want to go to prison. I would love to never touch it, never see it. I hear it smells bad, the food's bad. I don't want to be anywhere near it. I don't want to touch it. But you know what? If I have to go there for the word of God, so be it. You've got to prepare hard now and say, you know what? If all these guys can go to prison, how can I not go to prison for the word of God? Go to Revelation chapter two, Revelation chapter two. You say, well, that's Old Testament, Pastor Shelley. He would never, God would never want me to go to prison. God would never tell me to go to prison. Get out of the Old Testament, Pastor Shelley. Get in the New Testament. Get us some New Testament scriptures. You know, people think God would only want you to be blessed and to prosper and have money and wealth and everybody love you and treat you well. That's God's plan for your life. Let's see what God's plan is for these people. Revelation chapter two, verse 10. Let's back up. Let's just back up to get some context. Okay, verse eight. And under the angel of the church and Smyrna write, these things say the first and the last, which was dead in his life. So Jesus Christ is talking to the church of Smyrna. He says in verse nine, I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them, which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear, none of those things, which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful into death. And I will give thee a crown of life. Not only did Jesus Christ say, Hey, go to prison. He said, be faithful unto death. New Testament, the New Testament scriptures. You say, is that going to happen in the New Testament? Well, if you're making a big difference, it's going to happen, even unto bonds. Now the church of Philadelphia, they don't have to suffer those things. So notice he also says, and some of you shall be cast in prison. He didn't say everyone, but you might as well just prepare your heart now. Hey, if I have to go through that, I'm going to still stand on the word of God. You say, why prepare yourself pastor Shelly? Because here's the reality. Whenever you put in that situation, you're unprepared. You're going to run away naked like that one guy. There's this one guy. He's really interesting in the Bible. He was with Jesus Christ. And then the Roman soldiers come and the Bible says he was so scared. They grabbed hold of his loin cloth or whatever, of his clothes. He just runs away naked, scared naked. And that's what you're going to be if you're not prepared. I'm telling you just so you know, even people that think they're prepared, when that comes to the situation, they will flee. They will hide. They'll be scared. You know what? I'm not mad at you. I should have the attitude like the apostle Paul, and you should as well when people desert you, pray for them. Pray the Lord would strengthen them. Jesus Christ prayed for the apostle Peter. He said, hey, I'm going to pray for you that your faith will not. He wanted him to be strengthened. He wanted him to stay strong. So number one reason why people are going to be thrown into prison or under bonds would be for preaching the gospel. Another reason is God wants to tempt you. He wants to try you. He wants to test you. He was going to test those in the church of Smyrna and say, you know what? I want to see if you're faithful unto death. But it wasn't like be faithful unto death and get nothing. Be faithful unto death and get a crown of life. That sounds pretty great. Hey, I was one of those in Smyrna and I got this crown of life, buddy. That'd be pretty cool for all of eternity. Well, I was in the church of Laodicea. It was kind of lame. I'm just going to hold the door open for those that have the crown of life. Look, even though it's hard, your life is but a vapor. It's just a short space. I would like to take the hardest test. I would like to take the test where I have the opportunity to get the most points, be able to get the most reward. Why not? If I'm going to live my life, I mean, why not go out with a bang? Why not turn this world upside down with the gospel? Why not preach the gospel to as many people as I possibly can? The Bible says all the things that we see today, they're going to pass away. So why not be tempted and tried with the hardest things? But, you know, I think God sometimes builds us up to that moment. Maybe we're not all ready to be tried unto death. I certainly don't hope that's tomorrow. I love my children. I love my family. You know, it's not like I'm looking for trouble, and I'll never look for trouble. But the reality is, if we go out and we preach the gospel and we start making a huge difference, enemies will come. The persecution will come. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, as the Bible says. Go to Acts chapter number 12. Acts chapter number 12. So we see two reasons for the gospel, for being tempted, for being tried. What is in your heart? And none of us truly know what is in our heart until we go through that test, until we go through that trial. Peter, he's like, I'm going to die with you, Jesus. And then a little girl is like, do you know Jesus? No, I don't know. I swear, I've never seen the man. That's a pretty big difference, to say you're willing to die for him, and you can't even openly admit you know him in front of a damsel, in front of a little girl. And there's plenty of people, they'll be like, I'm ready, I'm going to die for Christ, whatever. And then, you know, just a little bit of persecution comes, they're gone. The guy with the sign out here, and they're gone, you know, or whatever. I mean, just basically nothing. Somebody wrote a negative article lying about your church, I can't come now. Acts chapter number 12, look at verse number one. Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, and he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread, and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quartertenions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. So notice James, he's just killed. He's killed for the word of God. You know, some speculation might say that James should have probably left and started preaching the gospel in other places. You know, the Bible does teach when they don't receive you to flee into another, to shake off the dust of your feet and go into another city. So it's possible James should have just gotten out of there. He should have decided, you know what, Jerusalem's pretty dangerous, maybe I'll go to the next town and go preach the gospel. So the Bible says, look, whenever you're faced with death, it's okay to flee to another area to preach the gospel. I'm not going to just go straight into North Korea and start trying to preach the gospel to, you know, the police over there. That's just asking for a death wish. In fact, I looked it up, some of the most dangerous countries in the world for preaching the gospel, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Nigeria, and these places specifically, Christians are literally being killed every single day now. And so while we live in America, we read some of these stories and it seems like abstract from us, it seems like a distant reality. People would be thrown into prison for preaching the gospel, but right now there are people that are literally fearing for their lives because they believe the gospel. There are people marching into their homes, taking their families out, murdering their family before their eyes, murdering those people, tempting and trying them, throwing them into prison. So we ought not get this, you know, oh, I'm in America, everything's great, you know, we'll have fun, fun, fun till daddy takes her T-bird away while Christians are being martyred in another country. It's gross. And you say, why is it that they are being persecuted? Well, they're actually taking a stand. They're actually standing up for the word of God. They're making a difference in those areas. Now, we need to get those areas with the gospel, but that's not where I'm going to start. I'm going to start with all the places that are nice and I can preach the gospel to them in my own language, in my own tongue, that free course can be made. Whenever the apostles come into an area and it's too dangerous, they flee. They go to another area and they start reaching other people. So we might as well try to reach as many people as humanly possible while it's free, it's easy, there's no persecution, because the persecution will come. But why is it that Peter is thrown into prison here? Well, Herod, he wants to please the Jews. And you know what? America is no different today. You know what America wants to do? It wants to please the Jews. So when people start preaching against the Jews, start preaching against Zionism, you know what America will want to do? It'll want to please those Jews and bind those, bound those that preach against them. Even today it's happening in very minor circumstances. I mean, I'd already said this before, but whenever they had that hurricane in Houston, not that long ago, in order to receive relief funds, you had to sign a pledge saying that you would not boycott Israel, that you would not stand against Israel. Why does that have anything to do with you receiving local municipal funds for hurricane damage? Oh, I'll support Israel. And you know who was the main proponent of that? Greg Abbott, your governor. Oh, he's so great, he's so godly, he just wants to please the Jews like Herod, and bind those that don't, and torture and persecute those that don't. Look, these guys are all wicked. They all have their own agendas. They all want for their own selfish bellies. What's the third reason you might be thrown into prison or be into bonds? It's because of money and power. Whenever you start threatening people's money and you start threatening their power by the word of God, they will come after you. Have you ever heard of the Dark Ages? The Catholic Church. Why were they persecuting Christians? Because they felt threatened by the truth. The truth was going to expose them, was going to take away their power, was going to strip them of their money, and so they had to hide people in darkness. They couldn't learn the Bible, they couldn't know the truth, they couldn't have God's Word, they didn't have it in their own language. What if the entire service was in Spanish today? A lot of you wouldn't get much of it. Even in the Spanish service today, I tried to get as much as I could, but I didn't get all of it. You know what, that would be a scary feeling. Every time I go to church, I can only hear it in Latin. I have no idea what they're saying. How could I know the word of God? How can you have faith? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. What happens when there's an absence of hearing the word of God? There's an absence of faith. How can I follow through with any of his promises? And you know what, whenever you start threatening the power and the money, people will hurt you. Look at Acts chapter number 16. Acts chapter number 16. Look at verse number 16. Acts 16 16. It says, And this did she many days, but Paul being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them in the marketplace and the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. So what happens? Well, they're preaching the word of God. Even the devil knows what they're doing. The divination spirit that's in this woman, she's like, hey, they're showing us the way of salvation. They're coming here preaching the gospel, the Bible way to heaven. They're coming here and teaching us how we can go to heaven. But you know what? Whenever they get rid of that divination spirit, what do those guys see that they lost? Their money. Oh man, our gains are gone. Now how are we going to get rich off of this demonic spirit? How are we going to get rich off of all of our sin and sorcery and witchcraft? Oh, you think that vaccinations are wicked? Yeah, I do. May they be holding not a physician. Oh, why do you want to silence that opinion? Oh, because you're afraid of your gains being gone? Do you know how much money is in the vaccination industry? It's trillions. I mean, these guys are filthy rich. And some of them are just placebo effects. Some of them are dangerous cocktails. It's like playing Russian roulette with your child's life. It's disgusting. But you know what? When you start preaching the Bible and you start warning people about truth, you know what they want to do? They want to hurt you because you're going to hurt their gains. What happens when you start preaching against the Catholic church? They want to imprison you. They want to kill you. What happens when you start preaching against all the things of the government and all the conspiracy theories? Whenever you preach anything that's truth coming from this word of God and it's going to affect the pocketbook of certain people, they will come after you. They will hurt you. Why did they hate Jesus Christ? Well, they were afraid the Romans would come and take away their nation, weren't they? They're afraid of losing power and losing money. And you know what? When we preach this word of God, when we preach this, you know who doesn't look good? The politicians. America, our country, our nation, the Joel Osteens of this world, the Kenneth Copelands. You don't think that some of these false prophets wouldn't love for us to be hung up? You know, there's somebody that a lot of people in here probably know, Brother Richie Simes. He was going into the Philippines and he's tearing that place upside down with the gospel, reaching all kinds of people with the gospel. But there's this false prophet, a quill-o-boy or whatever, I don't know if I'm saying his name right, a quill-o-boy or something like that. He's like saying that he's like God manifest in the flesh or something. Well, Brother Simes, he was preaching all kinds of sermons against this guy, you know, showing how wicked he is, and then all of a sudden he gets all these hits out on him and the government's coming after him and trying to arrest him and throw him in prison. He literally has to flee the country just because he's preaching against this false prophet, a quill-o-boy. It's happening today. Whenever you go into a nation and you start tearing it upside down with the gospel, when you start threatening people's money and power, you know what? They're going to come after you. You say, hey, why would a Bible-believing Baptist be thrown in prison? Because you're threatening their money and their power, because you're preaching the gospel, because you're going to be tempted by the Lord. And let's go to our last point. Go to 1 Kings chapter number 22. 1 Kings chapter number 22. Now, these first three, in America, I think that the American preachers will most likely probably not be thrown in prison for. I think it's more this fourth point. This fourth point, it really irritates the fire out a lot of people, and we've seen our nation make some drastic change lately. They're really afraid of this four-letter word, hate. It's a dangerous word today. I don't know, when did hate become such a bad word? I mean, I don't know what the timeline would be. It seems like maybe like four or five years ago. I mean, all of a sudden, hate just magically turned into the worst word in the dictionary. I mean, it's the worst of all four-letter words. 1 Kings chapter number 22, look at verse number four. Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Joseph said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said to Joseph, There is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Joseph said, Let not the king say so. What happens? Well, the king of Israel, he wants to go to battle, he wants to go to war, and he's looking for 400 yes men, and he's got them. He's just like, Hey, are we going to go to war? Is it going to work? Yeah, yeah, go man. You're going to succeed. You're going to prosper. It's going to be great. And Joseph is looking at these guys. They look like a bunch of Joel Osteen queer sissies. Oh, go, you're going to get it, man. And he's like, isn't there a prophet of the Lord? Isn't there like a hair-legged man around? Micaiah shows up, you know, they're like, I don't like that guy. He's not preaching anything nice and loving. Oh, he preaches evil concerning me. Well, if you're evil, then guess what? You're going to get evil. That's what he's going to preach about you. Look at verse number 17. And he said, I saw this is Micaiah speaking. And he said, I saw Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said unto Joseph, did not I tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? Well, guess what, Donald Trump, when you're evil, that's where you're going to get preached about you. Hey, Sarah Silverman, when you're wicked as hell, that's the kind of preaching that you get. Whenever you're a wicked, false prophet, guess what I'm going to preach about you? Evil, not good. Why would you preach good about the evil today? The pedophiles and the homosexuals and all those that are trying to destroy our nation. Yeah, we're going to preach evil against them. Look at verse 20. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramath Gilead? And one said on this manner and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord sent him wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets. And the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee. But Zedekiah, the son of Canaiah, went near and smote Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and carry him back unto Amnon, the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son, and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction, and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return it all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Harken, O people, every one of you. Notice what happens to Micaiah. He's brought before the king. He preaches him the truth. He just gives him exactly what God's Word says. He just opens his Bible. Hey, here's what the Bible says about you, buddy. Oh, this is evil. It's not Micaiah's message. It's the Lord's message. And then what does he do? He throws him in prison, the bread of affliction, the water of affliction. Look, it's everywhere in your Bible. The negative messages always are throwing people into the prison. They don't like hearing the negative message. The king doesn't want to hear it. Throw him in prison. Now, I'm not going to read all these for sake of time, but go if you would to Matthew chapter 14, Matthew chapter 14. While you're turning there, I'll give you a couple more instances. But in Second Chronicles, chapter number 16, we have a story about Hanani, and it says in verse number seven, it says, And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to them, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Now it says in verse 10, Then Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in a prison house, for he wasn't enraged with them because of this thing, and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. Now Asa is a guy in the Bible and we read about we like him. The Bible says he did that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. He removed the sodomites out of the land. This guy is a pretty great guy. I wish we could just have an Asa. But what happens? The preacher preaches negative against Asa and Asa throws him into prison. Asa puts him in prison. Why? Because he preached God's word. He preached the negative parts of the Bible. Oh, you like preaching the negative parts of the Bible? Yeah! I like being like Hanani. I like being like Micaiah. Who are those people? Well, read your Bible. I'm going to read another place. Jeremiah. Jeremiah, that guy, just nobody liked. Just read Jeremiah. He's constantly giving them a negative message. They're constantly throwing this guy in prison. Jeremiah 32, I'm going to read for you in verse number one. He says, And at the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all families of Israel? Just go ahead and turn there for a second. Let's turn there because I want to keep your finger on Matthew 14 because we're only going to a few more places. But go to Jeremiah 32 in the middle of your Bible. Look at verse number one. It says, The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord? Behold, I will give this city in the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape under the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylonian, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes. And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the Lord. Though you fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper. So we see Jeremiah, he's reaching a negative message against Zedekiah. Hey, you're going to be taken captive, and you're going to see him face to face, and he's going to take you into captivity, and you're going to fight, and you're not going to prosper. It just keeps getting negative, and negative, and negative. Later in the book of Jeremiah he's saying, Look, they're going to have your kids killed before your eyes, and then they're going to poke out your eyes. That's a pretty hardcore message to have to deliver. Be like, uh, let me just tell you what the Bible says. You're going to lose your eyes, and your children. Why? Because you keep rebelling against the word of God. But we see Jeremiah, he wanted to preach the word of God. Now, why is it that Jeremiah is getting such a bad rap? Why is it that people hate him so much? Well, I think it's in verse 20. Go to chapter 25, and look at verse 17, because what's our common denominator in all this? Our common denominator is when you start making a difference. When people start taking notice of what you're doing. Chapter 25, look at verse 17. It's talking about Jeremiah. Look at what this message was. He was saying, God bless you. You guys are so good. What do you say in verse 27? That's not a positive message. He went around preaching the most negative message to everyone. That's why he's thrown in prison. You say, why would someone be thrown in prison today? Because they're making a big difference. Preaching a positive message, or a negative message? Well, we see Jeremiah's thrown in prison for preaching a very negative message, wasn't he? And some people they think it's only acceptable to be thrown in prison for preaching the positive message. There's a lot of people thrown in prison for preaching the negative message, too. Jeremiah, Micaiah. We see Henanae. Go to Matthew 14, where I had you turn. Matthew chapter 14. Let's see another guy who has the same problem. Matthew chapter number 14. This is where I got the inspiration for my sermon. Verse number 1. So what happens? John the Baptist, who is described by the Lord Jesus Christ as the greatest man born among women, he was thrown in prison. Why? Because he was so nice. He was full of love. Well, he was full of love, and I'm sure he was a nice guy, but the reason why he was thrown into prison was because he preached against Herod. He preached a negative message. He's considered the greatest. Why is it, though, that people look at our church, or look at people like us, and say, oh, y'all are so terrible for preaching a negative message? Yeah, I'm trying to be like John the Baptist. This is steadfast Baptist church. We're trying to be Baptists here, and you know what? Baptists get thrown in prison for preaching the gospel, even under bonds. The Bible says preach the word, guess what, even under bonds. The positive message, the negative message. I don't care if it affects your money. I don't care if it affects your power. You know what? We're going to be tempted to the Lord, and we ought to say, you know what? I'm going to preach the gospel, even under bonds. That's the attitude we ought to have, and you know what? If every man forsakes me, well, you know what? I'll pray that God will strengthen you, but you know what? I want to stand on the word of God, even under bonds. Bring it on! I like it that we have protesters. Makes me seem like we're doing something. How do I go to the weak church? Oh, we'll never have a protester. I believe you. Do you ever preach anything negative? No. We don't even know where Genesis is in our Bible, or Exodus, or Judges, or any Jeremiah. What is that book? I mean, do you think other independent, vulnerable, Baptist churches are turning to Jeremiah ever? Maybe just for like a few verses that they cherry-pick out of them to try and twist the context. Go to Philippians chapter 1, the last place I'll have you turn. I just want us to renew our minds with the word of God and prepare ourselves, because there will be a day and time when this sermon is an end-season sermon. Right now, it's really kind of out of season in my mind because I haven't been thrown in prison. You all have been thrown in prison for any of these reasons. I don't know any of my friends have been thrown in prison for any of these reasons. Now, there's some people in some parts of the world that are suffering like this now. We ought not forget them. We ought to keep them in our prayers, but the reality is it's kind of an out-of-season sermon, but there will be a day and time, you mark my words, that that will be an end-season sermon. People will be thrown in prison, and you ought to think to God's word. I mean, what person here do you like that we haven't looked at? I mean, oh, Daniel. Oh, yeah, he was thrown in the lion's den. I mean, where do you go? I mean, every one of them is being persecuted and chased and thrown in prison and killed, all the people that I like. Philippians chapter 1, look at verse 8. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and this I pray, that your love may abound, yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that you may prove things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, under the glory and praise of God. But I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing, confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. We see that even unto bonds has a purpose, doesn't it? The apostle Paul, he said, you know what? Don't realize, don't think that, don't get discouraged by someone being thrown into prison. Realize that it's going to be for the furtherance of the gospel. Realize that the Word of God is going to go out more. And the more they afflict us, the more our message goes out. The more they afflict us, the more we grow. Look, when we started having protests, our church started growing. It's like we kept breaking the record. It's like, I need, I feel like we need more persecution so we can grow a little bit more, right? And we see the apostle Paul, he doesn't want them to get discouraged by his bonds. He says, you know what's happening? Other people are gaining confidence in the Word of God. Other people are getting waxing bold. Now they're ready to go out and preach the gospel. Now they're ready to go out and have some boldness. And you know what? Not everybody's going to go to prison. I don't think that that's the case. We just see pretty much everybody in the Bible does, though. And we see even in the church, some were cast into prison. And I think it's very likely some of us may be thrown in prison. But you know what? If you're thrown in prison, hopefully that can encourage your brother that's not thrown in prison to go out and preach the gospel more. To say it's more needful for me to go out and preach the gospel. What was the latter part of that verse? Even in the bonds, but the Word of God is not bound. When the Apostle Paul looks at Timothy, he says, you know what? The Word of God is not trapped with me here in this prison. It's in your hand, Timothy. Go out and preach the gospel. Go out and preach the Word of God. Don't let it stop with me. You go out and you preach the Word. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for the Word of God. Thank you for strengthening us, no matter what trials or temptations may lie ahead. I pray that it be possible that we have free course to preach the gospel. As long as we have breath, that we just have free course and we could reach as many people with the gospel as possible. But if it comes to it, even in the bonds that would be faithful, that would be faithful under your Word, that the Word of God could be sounded out from this church, that many people could be saved as a result of the works of this church, and that you could get all the glory and honor. And Jesus...